Thornhill Square, August 16. 1851.
_Was Milton an Anglo-Saxon Scholar?_ (Vol. iv., p. 100.).--Is it too
much to suppose that the learned "Secretary for Forreigne Tongues" was
acquainted with the _Paraphrasis poetica Genesios ac præcipuarum sacræ
Paginæ Historiarum, abhinc Annos MLXX. Anglo-Saxonicè conscripta, et
nunc primum edita a Francisco Junius_, published at Amsterdam in 1655,
at least two years before he commenced his immortal poem? Hear Mr.
Turner on the subject:
"Milton could not be wholly unacquainted with Junius; and if he
conversed with him, Junius was very likely to have made Cædmon the
topic of his discourse, and may have read enough in English to
Milton, to have fastened upon his imagination, without his being a
Saxon scholar."--Turner's _Anglo-Saxons_, vol. iii., p. 316.
Both Mr. Turner and Mr. Todd, however, appear to lean to the opinion
that Milton was not unskilled in Saxon literature, and mention, as an
argument in its favour, the frequent quotations from the _Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle_ which occur in the History. It is also worthy of note that
Alexander Gill, his schoolmaster, and whose friendship Milton possessed
in no small degree, had pursued his researches somewhat deep into the
"well of English undefiled," as appears from that extremely curious,
though little known work, the _Logonomia Anglica_.